


Hey Sugar, Nice Legs

by heretoprocrastinate



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bucky is bad at flirting, Flying, M/M, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Starbucks, Stucky - Freeform, Swearing, this is blatant fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-04
Updated: 2014-10-04
Packaged: 2018-02-19 19:16:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2399759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heretoprocrastinate/pseuds/heretoprocrastinate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky absolutely loves flying, but if the guy behind him doesn't stop kicking his chair, he's going to throw him out of the goddamn plane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hey Sugar, Nice Legs

Bucky loved flying.

Absolutely loved it. He loved all the boarding procedures, loved finding his seat, loved the whoosh of the engines as the ground fell away. Hell, he even loved the shitty in-flight meal of mush masquerading as food.

Currently, however, Bucky was not enjoying his flight. Not one bit. In fact, Bucky was sitting in seat 31a gritting his teeth and planning a murder. The reason for this uncharacteristic homicidal urge was sitting in seat 32a, directly behind him, and had been drumming his feet against Bucky's chair on and off since the plane had left the ground.

Mostly, it had been a steady tap tap tap of a single foot against the back of his seat, but every so often, the schedule was interrupted by a tip tap tip tap of two feet alternating, or an occasional knee digging unashamedly into Bucky's already complaining spine. He'd turned around a few times to glare at the guy through the gap in the seats, but message hadn't got through.

'Jesus, Barnes, just ask him to stop.'

Bucky turned to stare at the redhead sitting next to him.

'I shouldn't have to, Nat' he growled, 'I shouldn't have to teach a grown adult basic _manners_ -' he threw himself bodily against the back of his seat- 'on a-'

_slam_

'-fucking-'

_slam_

'-plane!'

Bucky slumped in his seat. 'And now my fucking back hurts. Fuck! Stop laughing!'

Natasha just snorted. Bucky slouched back down in his seat and braced for the hell to continue, but...

The tapping had stopped. Bucky froze, waited for a few seconds to be sure, but lo! The tapping had indeed stopped.

'Natasha!'

She raised an unimpressed eyebrow at his dramatic whisper, but Bucky didn't care, didn't care one whit, one hoot, didn't care enough to stop the slightly manic grin from spreading across his face.

It was over. Done. Finished.

The bastard had got the message. He seized Natasha's hand and raised it with his own in a triumphant salute. The rest of this flight would be better! He could relax, he could listen to music, maybe read something on his kindle or peruse the safety card. He could gaze out of the window at the soft rolling clouds below and contemplate life, or turn to his right and make idle chit chat with Natasha, wonderful, terrifying Natasha, about life, the future, the correct amount of jam on a slice of toast, anything at all, because Bucky loved to fly, loved the steady hum of the engines, the popping in his ears, loved pressing his face against the tiny window and watching the tiny, tiny world far below

- _tap_ -

- _tap tap tap tap_ -

'Oh my god no.'

Bucky tore at his seatbelt in a fury as Natasha, fucking wonderful friend that she was, cackled with sadistic amusement.

Twisting around, he knelt on his seat and leaned over into the row behind him, where serial foot tapper was sitting, the serial foot tapper who looked up in alarm as Bucky loomed over the seat in front of him.

Bucky gave him a devilish grin, all his Brooklyn boy charm oozing through, and purred at him.

'Hey sugar, nice legs. What time do they get the fuck off the back of my chair?'

A slightly brutal, perfectly delivered put down, which Bucky immediately regretted, because the great tapping menace, now he looked properly, turned out to be an adorably tiny tapping menace, with large, baby blue eyes, which peered up at Bucky over the fleecy blue blanket which was covering almost every inch of him, except for those eyes, and the mop of soft looking blonde hair, which _fuck_ if Bucky didn't want to run his fingers through it-

'E-excuse me?'

Deep voice, Brooklyn accent like his own, and fucking hell was Bucky trying desperately to hold onto his righteous fury and not just beg for the guy's number like he wanted to.

'Your legs', he returned after a beat, 'when are you going to take them off the back of my seat?'

The little guy looked down at his own legs as though he'd never seen them before, and Bucky could see the exact moment the guy realised what he'd been doing.

'Oh god, I'm so sorry! I didn't realise I was- I mean I did, but I didn't think- I mean, um, I'm really sorry...'

He trailed off and peered miserably up at Bucky, who didn't have an ounce of anger left in him, looking at this sweet little thing swamped in his blanket.

'Can you two stop staring at me now, please?'

Bucky jumped, and shared a slightly guilty look with Nat, who was also kneeling up in her seat and staring at tiny, blonde, and adorable. With a final, _utterly pathetic_ , glare, Bucky turned around and slid back into his seat.

Nat slid back into hers, before turning to stare at Bucky, who could only handle that look for about a minute, before huffing 'what?'

Nat slowly shook her head at him.

'That was a human puppy', she whispered, 'and you just kicked him in the face.'

'I didn't-'

'"Nice legs, what time do they get the fuck off the back of my chair?" Bucky, you could have physically punched the guy and it would have been nicer!'

'Oh, c'mon!'

'Human. Puppy.'

Nat jabbed him sternly with her finger, then reclined back in her seat, as though she could forget Bucky and the rest of her problems by closing her eyes and ignoring them all.

Bucky sulked. And firmly did not feel guilty. At all.

'He was kicking my seat for over an hour.'

Natasha hummed.

'You would have done worse. And sooner.'

'If you say so.'

Bucky sulked some more.

About five minutes passed, until Bucky could no longer stand sulking, and got up to use the cramped plane toilet in the hope that it might make him feel better. It didn't.

When he returned, Natasha wasn't in her seat. Instead, she was sitting behind her assigned seat and seemed to be having a lovely little chat with the Human Puppy, who had emerged from his blanket and was giving her a tentative but beautiful little smile. He shot Nat a betrayed look but only received an innocent smile for his trouble.

Bucky slumped back in his seat, and listened to Nat's husky laugh, her real one, mixed in with the rich, deep chuckle of her new flight partner.

Bucky gave up on sulking and decided to give moping a try.

He dozed, still miserable, until the pilot came over the speaker to announce they were beginning their descent - _could all passengers please return to their seats_ \- and Natasha flopped back down next to him. There was a minute of silence, then-

'Don't you want to know what I learned?'

'No.'

'Okay.'

Another minute passed, with Bucky physically biting on his lips to keep himself from asking, because when Nat went after information, hell did she always find the good stuff. And Bucky wanted to know, he badly wanted to know about the cute little blonde who was sitting behind him,with his cute fluffy hair and his cute oversized blanket.

'Oh my god, fine! What do you know?'

Natasha gave a pleased smile and twisted to face him.

'His name is Steve, he's from Brooklyn like you, he's an artist- earns a living doing illustrations, book covers, that sort of stuff- _lots_ of charity work, does illustrations and infographics for charities who can't really afford to actually hire someone-'

she took a quick breath and continued

'- he's single, didn't actually say gay, but he did mention getting into a fight at Pride so between that and the way he looked at the air steward, I'd put money on him being at least bi-'

another breath

'- and he's absolutely _shit scared_ of flying. Usually flies with a friend, but she couldn't get time off so today he's flying solo, as it were. Oh, and he thinks you're a dick. But I put in a good word and said that you're not keen on flying yourself, which is why you were a total jizz bucket.'

She gave him a little look at everything I learned, aren't you glad I'm your friend smile.  
Bucky was indeed glad, but with the plane currently making a bumpy touchdown on the runway, he was pretty sure he'd missed his chance.

After being wished a good day by the pilot, Bucky shuffled off the plane with the rest of the crowd, but kept throwing glances over his shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse Steve. Cute Steve, who had such pretty eyes, and a warm laugh, and gave his free time to charity, and who thinks Bucky's a dick.

Bucky had never regretted snapping at someone more.

He followed Nat through passport control and into the depths of the airport, where they joined the huddle of people waiting for their luggage. Natasha shuffled closer to him and rested her chin on his shoulder.

'You're not still sulking, are you?'

'I never sulk.'

She laughed softly, and nudged him gently with her shoulder.

'C'mon, smile, you're pretty when you smile.'

'I'm always pretty' Bucky huffed, but he did smile, because Nat could always make him smile, and it wasn't her fault that Bucky had been a total douche to the sweetest guy on the plane.

'Aw, there's my Bucky bear' she cooed, and Bucky laughed softly, because she really was a good friend to him.

'Now do yourself a favour and keep smiling. Hey, Steve!'

_I take that back_ , thought Bucky, _she's a terrible friend_ , as Nat seemed to pluck Steve out of nowhere. Steve who beamed at Nat, but gave Bucky a rather more polite smile which Bucky returned awkwardly.

Natasha was on a full charm offensive, smiling and chatting with Steve about bad flights and long airport delays, Steve who seemed even more tiny close up, and was all delicate wrists and pale skin, with full, pouty lips that Bucky wanted to bite-

'-aren't you, Bucky?'

Fuck.

'Sorry, what?'

Nat rolled her eyes, and laughed, but shot Bucky a quick look which said _you're making this difficult for me._

'Bucky doesn't really like flying, he acts tough but he grabs my hand whenever we hit turbulence'.

That was a lie. Bucky loved turbulence, turbulence was exciting, but Steve was looking up at him with a softer, more understanding expression, and there was no way in hell Bucky was going to let this God given, or Natasha given, opportunity slip by, so he cleared his throat and went for it.

'Yeah, I guess I'm... not great with flying, the noise y'know? And the, er, turbulence,  that's um...'

Okay, went for it was a bit strong, but Bucky was staggering firmly in the right direction, and when Natasha wandered off with a vague mention of coffee, Bucky scraped together his remaining courage.

'I'm sorry for before, for snapping I mean, I shouldn't have been a dick about it-'

But Steve gave a self-depreciating laugh and shook his head.

'No, I'm sorry, I must have been tapping my foot for ages. I usually fly with my friend Peggy, but she couldn't get time off work so...' he shrugged, 'she's the one to tell me to stop tapping my foot, or gripping the arm rest or whatever... I guess I was a bit freaked out my own.'

The tips of his ears had gone red while he spoke, and Bucky noticed that the blanket he'd been curled under was now folded and being hugged tightly to his chest. Bucky was not jealous of the blanket.

'So, Nat said you were an artist?'

Steve raised an eyebrow at him, his smile turning cheeky.

'Talking about me were you?'

Thankfully, Bucky's stuttering response was lost thanks to Natasha returning with three take away coffees. Steve was adorable and a little mischievous. Bucky was doomed. The three of them stood around and drank their coffee while chatting and waiting for their bags to appear.

Turned out that Steve lived pretty close to Bucky, that they both liked their coffee with way too much milk and sugar, and they both could have a pretty good stab at sign language, with Steve being partially deaf in one ear, and Nat's boyfriend Clint being too lazy too put in his hearing aids half the time. Bucky discovered that Steve had badly wanted to join the army before he'd shelved that hope and turned to his second love, drawing, and Bucky admitted he couldn't draw for shit, but had served a tour in Iraq before deciding that being shot wasn't for him.

When the luggage carousel lurched into motion, Bucky was startled that they'd talked for so long; Nat had dropped casually out of the conversation and was playing on her phone off to the side. Bucky resolved to send her flowers, or chocolates, or something. She really was wonderful.

Steve spotted his case and hauled it off the moving belt, and Bucky wished he'd missed it so Steve'd stay longer, but smiled and returned the 'yeah, it's been good meeting you', and then before Steve could leave he blurted out;

'Hey, I still feel kinda bad for, y'know, snapping at you... maybe I could... take you out for a coffee, sometime, maybe, to make sure I haven't, I dunno, increased your fear of flying, or something...'

He heard a quiet 'smooth' from Natasha, but Steve was smiling and raising an eyebrow at him.

'Increased my fear of flying, or something?'

Bucky floundered slightly but pulled out his phone, unlocked it quickly, and held it out to Steve with a hopeful smile.

'I'd really like to know you're okay.'

His smile turned to a grin when Steve rolled his eyes playfully, but took the phone and entered his number.

'Maybe you can check I'm okay over dinner? This weekend?'

All Bucky could do was nod and smile hopelessly as he took his phone back, watching as Steve gave him one last grin and threw a wave to Natasha, then strode off towards the exit, wheeling his case behind him.

He was still gazing after him when Nat came over to nudge him with her shoulder again.

'You are the least smooth person I know, Barnes. Also your case just went past.'

Bucky cursed and dashed after it.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Just dipping my toes into the writing pool, be kind! Any tips / suggestions are always welcome.  
> Find me on tumblr :)  
> http://heretoprocrastinate.tumblr.com


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